Modern History - US I

Here is the art and architecture presentation from Oct. 22:

• Baroque art review (Caravaggio, [Rubens], Poussin)

• Baroque architecture, and Rococo (and trompe l'oeil for fun :-)

• Neo-classical painting - Jacques Louis David

Dear class,  As I said when I passed back the tests last Friday, the scores on average were lower than usual.  There were also some very good scores.  I mentioned that I would provide an opportunity to help make up for what may have been lacking.

Everyone is at different levels in terms of natural abilities: memory, philosophical habit of mind, quickness of mind, etc., and for some of you it will take more time to make sense of and retain the same ideas and information as someone else.  If you score was not at the level that you and/or your parents would like, that may mean some adjustments need to be made in terms of note-taking, time spent studying, how you space out your studying, and/or technique.  As I said when I talked about note-taking skills last spring, reviewing your notes before each class is highly recommended for learning.  Just 10 min. twice a week, for example, will make a big difference.  And there are a lot of other factors.

So, that's my challenge to you.  On the other side, not everyone will do equally well in every subject, and that's perfectly fine.  Your value does not depend on how you perform!!  That is one the absolute most important lessons to learn in life, and you need to learn it in your mind and heart.

Practically speaking: If your exam score was too low for your expectations, you should talk with one or both parents and think through a plan of how you're going to approach your studies in general.  How will you break it up so as not to cram, do your note-taking skills need practice, do you need to spend more time, is what you learned for the time you invested sufficient even though it may be less than another student, etc.?  There really is a balance to be maintained.

As always, I am happy to discuss with parents if there's anything that I can modify on my end to help.  For example, the large matching questions that I usually include on exams may be visually overwhelming and having it broken down into smaller pieces may help -- or asking free response definition questions instead may be better, in which you don't have a lot of choice, but just explain the key ideas of the given terms.  Parents, please reach out if you'd like to discuss this or anything else.

Now, having said all of that, what about the numbers, the grade?  If you'd like to help "fix" your score, I will offer this make-up opportunity: for up to 20 points on your exam, go through each of the terms on the study guide and provide explanations/definitions/key ideas.  That could be done in bullet points.  For another 20 points, you can write up answers to the essay questions; some will need to be longer than others, and you can use the outline-answers that I provided, but you have to write in your own words.  No one will be able to earn higher than 100% by doing this extra credit.

I am also happy to talk about extra credit opportunities that are writing-lite, such as more creative projects, as you did with your guillotines last year.  Maybe, making a model or drawing a map of Paris around the time of the French Revolution, locating important cites relative to each other (the Bastille, the Tuiliers, Notre Dame, the Champ de Mars, etc.).  Maybe a detailed timeline of the French Revolution.  Opportunities abound.  Get in touch about this, if you want.

P.S.  I realize that I never linked the syllabus, so here it is.

Here is your Study guide that I handed out in class, and here are the Essay outlines that I also handed out.

Paper Guidelines:  You'll find this posted on Ms. Cocker's Writing page as well:

Tell the story of the French Revolution up through the execution of the king, concluding with a long final paragraph that evaluates the Revolution (what was good and what was bad about it?  how do we see the bad ideas playing out?).  Narrating well can be challenging; you must determine what are the main events, leave out of the story less important matters, and describe what you do include in enough detail that the story makes sense and flows logically.  Ideally, you include an occasional comment in your narration that points forward to your evaluative conclusion. 

The intro should be short and should include something evaluative.  You could probably think of the evaluation part in terms of: "What lessons can we learn from the French Revolution?"  What happens when you start with rebellion against authority?  What happens when you reject God's authority, or when you have a view of freedom that says we should be able to do whatever we want with no restrictions?  Remember whose idea of freedom that originally is: non serviam.

Papers:  Dear class,  after you receive you rough drafts back from Ms. Cocker, you can have until next week (Oct. 1) to revise and submit to me.  Unless your birthday is on Oct. 1 (hmmm... who would that be?), in which case you can have until Oct. 3.  :-)

However, you also have a literature paper due on Oct. 3, so please plan carefully and complete the history paper revision as soon as you can.  I'll give an extra credit point to everyone who turns it in by Sept. 26 (Fri.).

A couple notes about your first papers.

1. Ms. Cocker will be posting a little info about what to do for your footnotes at this point.  Remember, you don't have to do any additional research, so your footnotes will be coming from our textbook (Zehnder).

2. Here is a document that might provide a little bit of help for you.  It has some questions that will be on your study guide with answers in outline format.  It doesn't provide the evaluation (good/bad) that the paper requires of you, but at least it gives you some of the key ideas and connections.  Feel free to email me questions and/or bring them to class on Wednesday.  I also strongly suggest that if understanding the ideas has been challenging for you, reread the relevant sections in our textbook; particularly, look at the sections on Hobbes and on liberalism. 

Welcome to the new year.  Syllabus coming soon! :-)  Meanwhile, here is the assignment for the first two days:

Wednesday, Sept. 10:  Read Zehnder, Light to the Nations, introduction (pgs. 1-18) and complete the Questions for Review at the end of the chapter/intro (5 of them).

Read: pgs. 21-34 

Friday:  Read Zehnder, pgs. 34-38 and pgs. 41-52.  Complete the Questions for Review on pg. 39 and questions 1-2 on pg. 68.

Your summer reading (Gheon's Secret of St. John Vianney) will be incorporated into the course in November, so you're welcome to delay until it's closer to that time (e.g., read over fall break), as long as you're sure that you will have time to complete the book (130 pages).